Emmett Till Propels A Movement

Emmett Till was a fourteen year old Chicago native who was visiting with relatives in Money, Mississippi.  It is alleged that he whistled at a white woman, Carolyn Bennett.  She accused him of groping her and making crude sexual remarks to her.  When her husband learned of it, he, his brother and other men beat and gougued out Emmet's eyes, shot him, weighed him down and threw him in the Tallahatchie River.  When his body was found, it was mutilated and grotesque.  Emmett's mother held an open casket funeral for the world to see what racists had done to her son.  Jet Magazine published the photo.  In a trial two weeks later, the men were found not guilty.  

The outcry from Emmett Till's murder and the verdict propelled the Civil Rights Movement.  

In 2017, Carolyn Bennett admitted that she had lied, according to Tim Tyson, in his book, The Blood of Emmett Till."  He quotes her as saying, "Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him."  To read more:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/emmett-till-lynching-carolyn-bryant-donham.html